A Lesson Learned Is A Lesson Earned
by Anniehow
Summary: Zachariah keeps a close eye on the boy. AU for 5.04 The End


RATING: PG gen  
SPOILERS: 5.04  
CHARACTERS: Zachariah  
WARNINGS: goes AU for the end of the episode

Disclaimer: Supernatural is owned by it's creator Kripke and the CW network, and I am in no way affiliated with them.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Zachariah is such a joy to have as a villain. And then it occurred to me that we got off lightly with canon, because it could have gone like this...

* * *

He keeps a close eye on Dean Winchester, shadowing him silently, because he doesn't put it past the fool to get himself killed, and resurrecting him in the middle of Lucifer's playing field would mean painting a big fat target on both their backs, and frankly Zachariah has enough headaches already.

Would that he could simply leave the human and fast-forward to three days later to pick him up, but he's as invisible to an angel's gaze five years into the future as he is in the present. It's been difficult enough to find him now (and by little more than blind luck, really), and he's not letting the boy out of his sight for a single minute until the fool sees reason and finally agrees.

His superiors are getting impatient. He's never been under so much pressure before. Still, this plan will work. He's appealing to Dean's self-sacrificing streak, and any blind idiot can see that that's a mile wide. He'll see reason. He will.

Zachariah has chosen the exact moment carefully. Three days from now, the Dean that lived through the passing of the angels and the beginning of the reign of Lucifer will die in a pointless attempt to kill the Devil. As if a mere human could. Perhaps Zachariah shares some of the blame for putting such a notion into the boy's head, but the way Dean's clung to it is all human stubbornness and a great deal of cockiness.

He has little doubt that his Dean will find his way to the big event (and if he doesn't, well. Zachariah can remedy that too), but the speed with which he finds the camp is rather pleasing.

Humans are scrappy, Zachariah will give them that. Seeing how they're muddling through the apocalypse strengthens his notion that no matter how many will die once Michael wages open warfare on Lucifer, humanity will endure. He takes some comfort in knowing that his Father wouldn't have it any other way.

It doesn't take long for the two Deans to meet up, and Zachariah can't say that the manner of their encounter doesn't please him (he's wished time and again he could literally knock some sense into the boy's head). The Dean that has been forged by the End of Times pleases him even more. He's grown into a leader of men, he's harder, stronger, and seems to have finally gained some perspective outside of his immediate circle of friends and blood.

Zachariah stands silently and invisibly in the room, his curiosity peaked by the sudden flare of this Dean's soul when he demands to speak to _him_ while the younger version relates his journey through time. He sees a steely resolve that is mingled with hope, quickly squashed by the facts. It's too bad, really, that Dean isn't like that yet. He would be really useful in the present, in ways that he cannot in the future, now that all hope is lost and the angels have retreated behind the Gates of Heaven.

He follows Dean around, noting with surprise that the Prophet has survived and seems to be doing well despite the lack of angelic protection (they have a pretty bad track record with getting prophets to survive beyond their usefulness to Heaven); he finds it less surprising that Dean hasn't abandoned his fornicating ways. And apparently he's even passed them on.

Seeing Castiel so diminished is a nice plus. The Gates must have been sealed even tighter than he thought, or else they've found a way to cut him completely off, because his Grace is so low it is all but entirely gone. A fitting end for a traitor. Zachariah must remember to consider this form of punishment more often.

Not human, not angel, not demon, just an empty shell void of all that once made him a proud Soldier of the Host. The haplessness and the utter uselessness of the creature are all but too clear to Zachariah, but Dean seems to miss it, seems surprised to find that an angel can be corrupted down to such an hedonistic life. Clearly he doesn't realize just how far down an angel can fall, much further than a simple human being.

Castiel can't even see Zachariah, though he still recognizes Dean for what he is. Zachariah hopes this means Castiel can sense him, at the very least. Hopes he knows the Brother he rebelled against can see what he has made of himself with his betrayal. And even if not, Castiel was always clever. He'll know; he'll figure it out.

When there's the execution on the camp grounds Zachariah's hope soars to see that Dean has the capability to become such a leader (but then he's always known the boy had plenty of untapped potential). The plan to kill Lucifer is asinine in it's bluntness, but then strategy is a strong point of Michael's, Dean doesn't need it to win this war properly.

Zachariah can already see it, the perfect combination of the mightiest of angels and of the strongest of righteous men. It will be magnificent. Lucifer won't stand a chance. They will be able to throw open the Gates and rebuild Earth like the garden of Eden that once was. The children of men and women, free of temptation. The demons, vanquished once and for all. Paradise, finally.

He's so far in his own mind that at first he misses the message this Dean imparts on his charge. He goes back slightly, to hear it all, would manifest himself to cheer if it wouldn't defeat the purpose. Finally. _Finally._ Who better to make Dean see reason but himself?

If the blood could go cold inside his human vessel, it would when Dean finishes by negating all that he's said. Dean won't listen to his future. He's not ready, and once he'll be, it will be too late. Zachariah sees it clearly. He already knows the Dean that belongs here will die on the morrow. Now he's as certain that the Dean of the present will not heed all the evidence and the advice he's been given, and will continue in his stubborn selfishness.

He may alter some details with the hindsight he's been given, but the one deciding factor will remain the same, and thus the road will bring about Lucifer's reign, more or less just as they're witnessing.

It is unbearable and maddening that a single human should damn the whole of creation when right here there is a version of the same human who is ready for the sacrifice. It's an aberration. It's proof that God's divine plan is unraveling, His hand no longer pulling the threads to perfection.

And so Zachariah makes a decision. It's abomination, and it's dangerous, and he would never even consider it if he had any other choice, but these times must not come to pass. He takes the better Dean, the one who's been whittled and sharpened to be the best sword for Michael and wrenches a hole in time and space, filling it up with the Dean he brought here as his charge.

It's too late for that timeline and too early for that Dean, but the one he brings back to 2009 will save them. He will save them all.


End file.
